Nine days into the dig and the finds trays are overflowing. Luckily, Edwin is on hand to sort them out. Let’s take a closer look at some of the stuff that’s coming out of the ground today…

First of all, we should meet Edwin. This is Edwin:

Edwin is an accountant for Lotus (how glam!) and he likes to keep things in order. It definitely shows! This is what a finds tray looks like when it arrives fresh from the field, all dirty and messy and a jumble of things that are artefacts, and things that are not:

Whereas THIS is what a finds tray looks like once Edwin has finished with it. Everything is clean, the non-artefacts have been discarded, and the remaining artefacts have been sorted by type and size:

It’s the kind of thing that brings us archaeologists a deep sense of pleasure, but it’s also incredibly useful for the finds team for when it comes to weighing, bagging and analysing. But before we go into some more detail, here’s another one full of animal bones for you to admire:

So, what kind of things are we starting to find, and what kind of questions will they help us answer? Well, judging by this finds tray, we’ve certainly got plenty of butchered pig bone. Most of it is coming out of trench 28 (the one that’s quite some distance from the heart of the abbey). It’s a pretty good clue as to what our ‘pirate priests’ were consuming:

There’s also some lovely bits of medieval pottery coming out of trench 26, like this piece of Flemish greyware that was decorated with a zig zag sometime in the 12th or 13th century. As well as being lovely to look at, they’re great for helping us providing dates for the deposits they came out of:

There’s also plenty of building rubble, like mortar, flint and bits of limestone block. But there are also these rather more curious bits of metal – most likely lead from fitting or repairing the window frames:

But probably one of our favourite groups of finds so far are the gorgeous bits of painted window glass we’ve been finding. We know that the abbey was moved from this site, to one five miles away that we excavated last year, where we found some pieces with pretty much the same pattern:

Great stuff! Check out more pictures from Day 9 here.

Far from what would have been the heart of Suffolk’s original 12th century abbey, we spotted a strange geophysical anomaly. Knowing that there was a pillbox on site, we figured that this anomaly might be a gun emplacement, or something else related to WW2.

Now, it might seem odd that archaeologists trying to find a medieval abbey might decide to investigate a much later feature, but on an evaluation excavation like this, we’re interested in characterising the archaeology that survives.

So which would it be? Part of a twelfth century abbey? Or a WW2 ruin? Thankfully, Trench supervisor Ed had Simon (a racing driver from Tilbury) and Gerard (a tattooist from Hackney) trowel-ready to help him out. As it turns out, the investigation was well worth it.

A few short minutes into the brand new trench, we could see that it was full of light, sandy deposit. More than that, those light, sandy deposits contained a series of darker, siltier pits which in turn contained lots of tile, bone and oyster shell.

Eagerly plucking the artefacts from the pits, Gerard and Simon quickly proved that this trench was medieval, and likely to be contemporary with the original twelfth century abbey. What’s more, many of the bones bore cut marks, and could easily be identified as pig, which gave us a good indication of what Suffolk’s original ‘pirate priests’ probably had for dinner.

But that’s not the only reason it was epic. Chris has been on nine (yes, NINE) digs with us. Today, Raksha decided he was ready to fill her boots and run a trench for the very first time.

Trench Supervisors might look like they’re just standing around, and pointing at things while you do all the careful work of excavating, but running a trench is no easy task. You have to decide which features to dig, for what reason, and most importantly how. More than that, you have to make sure everyone in your trench understands what you want them to do and why, and be on hand to explain, interpret and help record any archaeology that shows up. And since things can change pretty quickly, you have to be alert to what everyone in your trench is doing, all of the time.

The aim of the day was to dig out the rubble on either side of the corridor. Under Chris’ watchful eye, Raksha, Christine, Hillary and Tayo set about carefully removed the rubble, and kept the sections straight, pulling out small pieces of bone, tile and limestone along the way.

Suddenly, just as we thought we were about to hit the bottom, there was a ringing noise; Christine’s trowel had struck something hard. Grabbing a brush, she swept away the loose and chalky rubble that lay on top. And there it was; the edge of a medieval floor that’s not been seen, or walked on, for over 700 years.

At one end, it looks like a flagstone, with a series of red, yellow and dark stones, all neatly squared and sitting tidily in a line. And as Chris watched carefully as she troweled away around the edges to expose more it was clear that there was a small drop down to a solid mortared surface. Could it be a step?

But the discoveries didn’t stop there. As Chris dropped into the trench to help Christine expose the floor, a hexagonal-looking limestone block emerged from the rubble right next to it. It was starting to look more and more like a doorway.

Then, a few minutes later, we heard a little yell from the other side of the trench – Tayo had uncovered YET ANOTHER piece of floor, this time on the other side of the trench.

With only minutes to go until tools down, it was suddenly starting to look like we had not only a corridor running through the trench, but also evidence of two buildings on either side, including a possible doorway. Our conclusion? Archaeological discoveries are like buses. You wait for one for ages, and then three come along at once.

If the archaeology that showed up on Chris’ watch is anything to go by, then he did a sterling job. And on top of that, he managed to keep Raksha in line! Well done Chris!

We reckon it was part of the 12th century abbey constructed by Suffolk’s medieval pirate priests, possibly even part of their church. We’ll share some more pictures of their discovery later, but for now we just want to say how delighted we were to see so many parents and children having fun getting grubby together!

It was another early start on site this morning, and today we were ready to decide which archaeological features to excavate. It’s customary (and logical, and fundamental to the whole archaeological process!) to start with the most recent feature first. But how can you tell at this point?

In this case, it was easy; there was a line of plough furrows running right through the middle of our longest trench, and they were clearly very modern. In fact, we knew that about 20 years ago, this field had been ploughed for potatoes.Furrows are usually pretty easy to identify in an open trench, you normally see the deep dark brown soil running in straight lines through the much older archaeological layers. If it seems a bit odd to be so intent on excavating such a modern feature, then here’s an interesting fact for you:

Ploughs often drag up older deposits and artefacts from the underlying layers, which means plough furrows may not just be full of topsoil, but also contain important archaeological finds. We need to remove them not only because we want to get to what’s underneath, but because they may contain archaeology.

As if to prove a point, Dee and Dee found several pieces of medieval glass, plenty of roof tiles, building mortar and shells.

The Two Dees were delighted with their finds and were keen to keep on going, but unfortunately the bad weather forced us to pack up early for the day. But that didn’t mean there was nothing left for the two Dees to do. We still had some post-excavation work to do, because cleaning the finds to preserve them once they’re out of the ground is just as important as excavating them in the first place.

After the finds were cleaned, it was time to set about comparing them to the finds from our previous years of excavation at the new Leiston Abbey site. So although the weather wasn’t particularly kind to us today, we did still manage to keep our volunteers busy and show them a day in the life of a REAL archaeologist!

We know that they built their first abbey here at Minsmere in 1182, and that in 1293 they were accused of stealing ships from the nearby port of Dunwich. We also know that in 1363, they completely dismantled their abbey and carried every last stone five miles down the road to Leiston, where it still stands today, and where we’ve been excavating for the last three years.

After days of careful excavation, traces of the dismantled abbey are starting to emerge from the dust. So far, we’ve found some perfect limestone blocks, the trace of an enormous building and even what looks like a corridor leading from one part of the abbey to another, but today it was Jackie who unearthed our most tantalising piece of evidence yet.

She’d only been in the trenches for about 10 minutes, when her trowel unearthed the tip of something glossy and black. A few delicate scrapes later, and it was clear she’d found something important; a piece of medieval grisaille!

Grisaille is a type of stained glass made by painting black or brown pigment onto clear glass. The designs were often elaborate, but usually monochrome, and was particularly popular in the churches and cathedrals of 12th and 13th century Europe. Look carefully at this one and you can just about make out the traces of a swirling foliage design painted in a deep reddish brown. It’s too delicate for us to clean up just yet, but you can still imagine how magnificent it would have looked with the sunlight streaming through! But perhaps the most striking thing about it is that we found a few pieces EXACTLY like it when we were excavating at Leiston Abbey last year.

It not only indicates that there was an element of stylistic continuity between the two sites, it’s an apt reminder that when we think about the task of moving the abbey from here to the new site at Leiston, we tend to think firstly of how much hard work must have gone into moving the stones. But surely it must have been moving things like the delicate stained glass windows that must have been the REAL logistical nightmare! Talk about a window to the past…

We’re leaving investigations of the channel until next week, right now we want to find the abbey. All that remains above ground is a much later chapel, but underground, there’s much, much more – it’s just up to us to find it! We want to establish the footprint, in order to see whether the layout was the same or different to the new abbey they built, and get a better understanding of the chronology of the site. Cleaning up the trenches has been dusty work. But we’ve got there and our trenches are now ready for you to take your first peak… Here they are!

The Long Trench (27)

Wow, well when you take a look at this trench, you’ll start to see that we’re hot on the trail of the abbey. At one end, we’ve got a section of wall, but at the other, there’s an enormous, pale, white rectangular feature, bordered  by a creamier deposit, and lastly a more dark reddish brown. It’s shaping up to be a very large building, and we’re getting pretty excited about it. This trench was placed over a series of crop marks had been identified and now, that we’ve opened it up and given it a good clean we can see all sorts of features – including a very clear wall and possible entrance. During the cleaning process, we also found some large-ish pieces of stained glass… but more on that later!

The Square Trench (26)

We don’t quite have a 3D model of this trench ready yet, so this incredibly striking image will just have to do for now. The geophysics showed up what looks like a walkway connecting the cloister at the heart of the abbey with an activity area to the north. Sure enough, now that we’ve given it a good old clean, we can clearly see a corridor with two buildings on either side. The priests have clearly taken everything they could, because most of what’s here looks like demolition rubble… except they missed a bit! And we know this because we found a gorgeous piece of dressed limestone that still looked as fresh as the day it was cut. The really weird thing is, though, that the corridor seems to be on a different alignment to what’s showing up in the geophysics. So is there another phase of building underneath?

The Far Trench (28)

Ok, so not much to see… yet. Or is there? The chapel that still stands today was later turned into a WW2 pillbox, and to the northeast of the chapel the geophysics showed some particularly strong magnetic signals – so strong in fact that we thought it might be a relatively modern feature, perhaps something related to the pillbox, like a gun emplacement.

But as soon as we opened the trench, we saw that it was chock full of oyster shells, chopped up cow bones, and roof tiles – the trench is looking as medieval as you can get. And that’s really exciting because it tells us that the abbey extends much further into the landscape than we had thought. However, we’re leaving this one until next week before we start excavating it.

The East Trench (25)

The geophysical survey showed what looks like a whole series of buildings, but it’s difficult to make out what they are. One of them, however, looks like it might be the original abbey church. What’s more, it looks like it might have an apsidal (curved) end. This is generally a feature of earlier church buildings, and not later ones.

We’d already marked out the trenches with millimeter accuracy, so we were ready to spend the day getting our trenches open. We weren’t necessarily ready to make a significant discovery quite so soon!

Lying there in the dirt was the crispest, whitest block of dressed limestone you ever did see. The edges were sharp, and on one side, you can even see the mason’s mark from where it had been cut from a bigger block of stone. It looked as fresh as the day it was cut, all the way back in the 12th century.

Sure, you’re bound to see blocks of limestone when you’re excavating a medieval site. In fact, our crowdfunders have found plenty on earlier excavations, but those blocks have all had hundreds of years of weathering.

This one was different. This one was as crisp as the day it was cut.

One of the things we kept coming back to was just how very clean it was, and after all those years underground too! But of course, unweathered by elements, unworn by the passage of time, and buried before the days when pollution made all stone buildings look grimy with a few years, it was a potent reminder of the excitement our priests the moment the priests decided to settle and start building their first home out here on the Suffolk coast.

But this single block of limestone is more than just an artefact to contemplate; if we want to unearth the truth about the priests who lived here, then the first thing we have to do is find their abbey.

The chapel you can see in the pictures is just a tiny part of it – the rest is still hidden underground, where it has lain undisturbed for the last 700 years. That limestone block represents our first step towards finding it. With the sun shining down, with Diggory there to cheer us on, and with such a distinctive find so early on, it feels like our last season investigating medieval Suffolk is off to a very good start!

Once upon a time, an obscure community of priests decided to settle under Suffolk’s big, blue coastal skies. They built an impressive abbey, which exerted a huge influence on the area. Today, we’re back under those same big blue skies to uncover their story.

This is the start of our fourth and final season. We’re all excited to be back, but expectations are running high; it’s our last chance to recover any more evidence from Leiston Abbey, and to make sense of what happened here all those centuries ago.

The Story So Far

Over the last three seasons, we’ve gathered some pretty impressive evidence. First, we discovered that there was a previously unknown prehistoric settlement on the site, then we found an infirmary, and a gatehouse. We also recovered an enormous collection of medieval pottery, clues about ancient hygiene practices, and even evidence that one of the farmers who took over the abbey after the dissolution gave their working dog a pet’s burial. But even though a detailed picture of life at the abbey over 400 years is starting to emerge, there’s a whole chapter that we’re yet to explore…

A Tale of Two Abbeys

The Leiston Abbey we’ve been investigating so far was built in 1363. But it was actually originally built by the sea in 1182, five miles away from where it stands today. That means there’s at least another 200 years worth of archaeology still to uncover!

This season, we’re starting to dig at the abbey’s original site to see what we can recover of the earliest phase of the abbey, and to tie the story of the two sites together.

So where do we begin? We want to know how much of the original abbey survives underground, and whether it has the same ground plan, or a different one. We also want to know whether the priests continued using the site for anything after they’d moved they building, and if they did, whether it was for anything that could have generated an income.

Priests… or pirates?

Last, but not least, there’s the question of whether claims that the priests were behaving like pirates were really true. Was there a navigable channel that the priests could have used for docking ships? They were, after all, pretty close to the sea.

In summary, we want to know how much of the original abbey survives underground, and what condition it’s in. We want to know whether the layout conforms to expectations, or whether the priests left us yet another surprise.

If we can establish that, we’ll be in a very good position to start answering some of the big questions about Suffolk’s medieval history, and the archaeology it has left behind.